Twitch introduced a sub gifting feature that got an incredibly negative response, and the platform removed it the very next day. Surprisingly, though gifted subs are a great help to Twitch streamers, it was the streamers themselves who decried the move on Twitch's part.
Twitch streamers can make revenue directly through the platform in a few different ways. For example, viewers can donate bits, subscribe to the channel for a month, or use gifting to give subs to other viewers. Gifted subs being distributed are always an exciting moment, as the gifters can choose to give them to a random group of active viewers, and at the same time, the Twitch streamer gets a boost in their income. However, this new move from Twitch didn't go over the way the platform likely expected.
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Twitch Streamers Revolt Against New Sub Gifting Option
On November 26, Twitch quietly introduced a new feature that greatly expanded the ability to gift subs to a channel in one transaction. Previously, viewers were limited to gifting a maximum of 100 subs to other users at any given time, but Twitch changed it to a new limit of 1,000 subs. Since Twitch subs are normally $5.99 a piece at Tier 1, giving this many at once would ordinarily cost about $6,000, but Twitch offered a discount on the bundle, bringing the price down to $5,000. Though some might find it hard to fathom that anyone would gift this many subs at once, it didn't take long for the maximum amount to start trickling in for popular streamers. However, many of those streamers didn't know the change had even been made, leaving popular streamer Emiru to wonder if it was even real when the notification initially came in.
Though some streamers would likely consider themselves lucky to be given this much at once, Twitch streamers took to social media to decry the change. Several expressed concern for their viewers, with worries that some of their viewers might feel compelled to gift the maximum whether they could afford it or not. Twitch streamer Ludwig notably complained that the platform continues to add new features that make more money for Twitch, but that the service hasn't improved upon its mobile app. Another frequently expressed concern was that the 1,000 gifted subs option would be used to troll channels, as a user could potentially chargeback the purchase and leave the streamer overdrawn and in debt.
The very next day, Twitch quietly removed the feature, returning the limit to 100 gifted subs. Twitch hasn't provided an official explanation for the change, with many believing that the backlash against the move is to thank for its reversal. Others, however, are more suspicious of the move, as Twitch is currently offering a 35% discount on five or more gifted subs, which it likely wouldn't want to extend to the 1,000 sub offer. However, if that were a concern, it presumably could have just excluded the 1,000 option from the sale. Nonetheless, streamers are keeping their eyes on December 1 to see if the feature returns.
Twitch streamers do have good reason to be concerned about the potential risks with this new limit. Back in 2024, popular streamers Kai Cenat and CaseOh both made headlines due to receiving gifts of over 2,000 subs and 1,000 subs, respectively. Kai Cenat panicked on-stream upon realizing that the Twitch subs had likely come from a child who may have stolen their parent's credit card, with the gifted subs costing over $11,000. However, it's also worth pointing out that although this Twitch feature added the ability to gift a thousand subs all at once, there was never anything stopping users from gifting 100 subs multiple times, leading to incidents like these.